Verizon - page 13

What’s this? Android news on Cult of Mac? Who cares? Maybe you don’t, maybe you do. Point is: these are a few of the popular topics going on in the Android world today. Maybe you’d like to know what the competition is up to, or perhaps your aunt received a Kindle Fire she needs to update. Regardless of the reason, having a resource such as Cult of Android allows you to learn more about what’s going on with the competition. You know what they say: the best way to beat the enemy is to know which way they’re moving!/em>

What’s this? Android news on Cult of Mac?! Who the hell cares?! Maybe you don’t, maybe you do. Point is: these are a few of the popular topics going on in the Android world today. Maybe you’d like to know what the competition is up to, or perhaps your aunt received a Kindle Fire she needs to update. Regardless of the reason, having a resource such as Cult of Android allows you to learn more about what’s going on in the ecosystem powered by the world’s leading mobile OS.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – In the aftermath of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, there are going to be hundreds of awards — some official, some decidedly not-so — declaring the best product of CES.

Why wait? We can already tell you what we think the best product of CES is: Verizon Wireless’s network, which is the only one that has not been frickin’ smeared into jelly by the insane data and voice demands of the show’s technical elite.

Apple’s iPhone is now available on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon in the U.S., but T-Mobile customers are still waiting for the popular smartphone to come to them. According to the company’s CEO, Philipp Humm, the reason the device still hasn’t arrived is T-Mobile’s unique 3G band, which isn’t used by other carriers.

With CES in full effect, it’s been an extremely busy couple of days for Android. In fact, I was so absorbed in CES news, I forgot to post yesterday’s Android roundup (I bet you thought it was going to go away). Good news is we’re still here, and for anyone interested in what has been going on in the world of Android, we encourage you to head over to Cult of Android. Here’s a recap of some of the news-making headlines today.

The Wall Street Journal reports Apple may have developed a modified version of its iPhone compatible with China Telecom’s “CDMA-2000” network. The device is set to make its debut in China this Friday, but as things currently stand, it’s to be exclusive to China Unicom.

What’s this? Android news on Cult of Mac?! Who the hell cares?! Maybe you don’t, maybe you do. Point is: these are a few of the popular topics going on in the Android world today. Maybe you’d like to know what the competition is up to, or perhaps your aunt received a Kindle Fire she needs to update. Regardless of the reason, having a resource such as Cult of Android allows you to learn more about what’s going on in the ecosystem powered by the world’s leading mobile OS.

The prevailing Wall Street consensus is that Apple will report later this month iPhone sales of around 29 million handsets. But one expert is questioning that figure, suggesting official analysts could be way too conservative amid yet another historic sales period for the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant.

Just how important is the iPhone to U.S. carriers? Verizon’s financial chief provided some insight Wednesday, announcing the provider sold 4.2 million Apple smartphones during the holiday fourth quarter. While the October launch of the iPhone 4S likely spurred many of those purchases, the cost is a smaller profit in exchange for hefty data contracts and a piece of the Apple halo.

Finland is far from the minds of most iPhone users. However, the frigid, Nordic country is huge on carriers’ radar because it is there that text messaging was born and where it could very well die. The number of Christmas Eve texts in Finland fell off a cliff, plummeting to 8.9 million from 10.9 million in 2010. With text messages accounting for 20 percent of carrier revenue, its enough to give companies nightmares — but this bad dream is far from over.

See that iPhone 4 above? If you click here, you can see it in its full, remarkable glory on the website of its creator, HTML5 and CSS3 maestro Vasily Zubach.

Why is it so remarkable? Because in its original incarnation, it was accomplished entirely in Javascript and CSS. That’s right: there’s not a single image file in the whole shebang.

I have some good news for all you Verizon customers who were as upset as I was over the whole “convenience” fee fiasco. Verizon has decided to jump ship on the whole “convenience” fee idea after receiving immense backlash from customers as well as oodles of bad press (probably the bad press that did it). At one point it even looked as if the FCC was going to get involved, and for good reason: Verizon was simply trying to nickel and dime its customers. It’s not often we get to score one for the good guys, and this news has certainly put a smile on my face. Kudos to everyone who voiced their opinions, eventually forcing Verizon to release the following statement:

Good ol’ Verizon, always passing the savings onto its customers. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm in that last statement, prepare yourselves for disappointment. Verizon apparently believes you should be charged a “convenience” fee for paying your bill. Yea, I know — what a convenience it is to shell out hundreds of dollars to a company that has three outages in one month. Okay, so the “convenience” fee really only applies to anyone trying to pay their bill online or over the phone with any method other than electronic check. You’re also safe from being charged a fee if you are enrolled in AutoPay.

If you received an iPad for Christmas, there is a 95 percent chance you connected to a local Wi-Fi network to slurp up data, a new study predicts. Where does that leave cellular carriers? Out in the cold with their expensive data plans and 3G tablets, that’s where. The really bad news for folks like Sprint is the trend for 9.5 out of 10 tablets to exclusively use Wi-Fi doesn’t appear to be changing.

Wow! 2011 has been one of the most interesting years in recent memory for Apple Inc. Of course the death of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, stands out as one of the most important events of the year for Apple, but there have been a load of other stories too that have made 2011 a very memorable year for the fruit company. From one controversy to the next, to record-breaking earnings, and new products, Apple has plowed through 2011 with a steady determination to be the best technology company on the planet. Only one device underwent a redesign (the iPad), while other form factors stayed the same. Instead of focusing on making pivotal leaps forward with hardware, Apple’s main focus of 2011 was to fortify their strong foundation in the software game.

Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on the Apple in the year 2011.

The NFL has announced that NBC’s broadcasts of wild card Saturday, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl will be available online as well as via Verizon’s NFL Mobile app. This will mark the first time said events were streamed through a mobile platform and it comes as no surprise that their partner Verizon gets the honor. Here’s what Hans Shroeder, NFL senior vice president of media strategy and development had to say about the news:

If you’ve been whining about why the iPhone 4S has no 4G, get ready for a real letdown — 2G speeds. The move by AT&T to throttle its top 5 percent of data users to a snail’s pace is an unwelcome Christmas present for many iPhone users.

AT&T appears to be the latest announcing higher iPhone sales. Continued “strong” demand for iPhone 4S likely will push the carrier beyond its previous single-quarter record sales of 6.1 million smartphones — and a month still remains before the end of the fourth quarter. The news isn’t too surprising, given in October AT&T activated 1 million iPhone 4S handsets in just five days.

Sprint may want to rename its “Now Network” to the “Later Is Better Than Never Network” after the carrier’s finance chief pushed back 4G LTE to late 2012. Although the new delay puts the third-place wireless carrier further behind Verizon and AT&T, the new rollout date for the faster network should coincide with Apple’s iPhone 5, expected to use LTE.

If Sprint’s new “network enhancements” were designed to quiet complaints by iPhone 4S users, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier may need to return to the drawing board. Following tweaks for peppier 3G downloads, many Sprint customers still complain of turtle-like connections while lusting after Verizon’s faster network.

Not even the threat of costly early-termination fees are enough to keep many consumers from jumping ship for the newest iPhone. Some 45 percent of cell phone owners have broken their carrier’s contract in order to grab Apple’s iconic smartphone, according to a new survey showing just how loyal many people are to the Apple brand.

How did you spend your day after Thanksgiving? If you worked at any of Apple’s 358 retail locations, it was likely just a blur. Some rather outstanding statistics emerged from Black Friday sales of Apple gear, including the sale of 14.8 iPads every hour per store, and 89 every minute around the US – or 1.5 tablets each second. Stacked together, consumers bought almost a mile of iPads on the first day of holiday shopping, or a tower 900 feet taller than the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Sprint’s debut iPhone 4S commercial (unsurprisingly) boasts about the biggest reason for choosing Sprint over its rivals, and that’s “truly unlimited” data. It also praises Apple’s App Store, which is home to half a million apps, by floating popular app icons around New York City.

Want the iPhone 4S but still unsure which carrier to commit to? It was easier when there was just one, right? Well maybe this will help you decide: A test performed by Metrico Wireless highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all three iPhone 4S providers — AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon — with Verizon coming out on top when it comes to reliable calls, and AT&T beating the others to faster data.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBk_iHJU4tM

Verizon has launched a new ad featuring Apple’s popular iPhone which mocks the network coverage offered by rivals AT&T and Sprint.

In the 30-second clip, a group abandons a sinking ship, escaping with just their lives and their iPhones. Only one of the party gets enough signal to make a call, and that’s the one who’s on Verizon — a carrier which claims to offer “the best wireless service in the world for your iPhone.”